FORT WORTH – NASCAR driver Kyle Busch was given the black flag for the rest of the racing weekend by NASCAR officials this morning after he deliberately took out NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Ron Hornaday Jr. at last night’s Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

“Following the event and after a good deal of conversation and discussion, NASCAR has decided to maintain that parked position on the driver of the 18 truck for the balance of the weekend,” said NASCAR president Mike Helton during a news conference Saturday morning at Texas Motor Speedway. “So basically what that means is Kyle Busch will not be participating today or tomorrow in the NASCAR event here in Texas.”

NASCAR President Mike Helton speaks with the media at a press conference announcing that Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M's Toyota, will be suspended for the remainder of the race weekend during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas. Courtesy photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images.

The incident began Friday night on the 14th lap of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series WinStar World Casino 350k at TMS. Busch and Hornaday made contact in Turns 1 and 2. When the caution flew Busch ran his truck into the back end of Hornaday’s truck in Turn 3 and sent Hornaday head-on into the outside wall, which ended Hornaday’s chances of winning the race and from winning the championship title.

“The responsiblity over the past two or three seasons we’ve given back to the drivers came I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed,” Helton said. “As annoying as the comments that I’ve made personally in the past about ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ might have been, we saw it last night. Obviously after the event, a lot of folks put their heads together to decide what, if anything, we would do. Then what I’m telling you today is our reaction.”

Busch was scheduled to compete in today’s NASCAR Nationwide Series O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge and Sunday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series and Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA Texas 500 races. Denny Hamlin was named to drive Busch’s Nationwide car and Michael McDowell will drive for Busch on Sunday.

“On occasion you have an incident to take the responsibility, to take the additional step like we’re talking about this morning, and it’s not an easy step to take,” Helton said. “It’s not something we enjoy doing. It’s not an action that we would want to do. But we do take our responsibility to maintain control of the garage areas and the unfolding of the events very seriously which led us to this action.”

Team owner Joe Gibbs speaks to members of the media after Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M's Toyota, was parked for the weekend following an incident with Ron Hornaday Jr. in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Courtesy photo by Todd Warshaw/Getty Images for NASCAR.

Busch was unavailable for comment, but Joe Gibbs, Busch’s car owner in the Nationwide and Cup Series, met with the media about an hour after Helton spoke and was visably upset over NASCAR’s ruling.

“This is a tough situation for us,” Gibbs said. “Basically what we’re trying to do is go through it the right way. Everybody here with our race team is trying to meet with everybody affected by this. Obviously we got a lot of work to do there, a lot of people to see. But we’re going to be trying to go through this, try and handle everything in the right way.”

Busch could face futher actions and sanctions by NASCAR and by Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I have no idea what else NASCAR is planning,” Gibbs said. “We’re still early in the process, and we’re trying to work our way through it as best and as fast as we can.”

Helton said Busch could face more penalities after NASCAR officials meet on Monday.

“Our responsibility is to officiate the sport, inspect the hardware that’s involved in the sport in a manner that everybody feels like they’re on an equal and level playing field,” Helton said. “That’s the sport’s responsibility. But we do take our responsibility to maintain control of the garage areas and the unfolding of the events very seriously which led us to this action.”

Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 Traxxas Toyota, and Ron Hornaday Jr., driver of the #33 OneMain Financial Chevrolet, hit the wall after an incident in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series WinStar World Casino 350k at Texas Motor Speedway on November 4, 2011 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Courtesy photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway).